JOE’s Fit Bit: Reformer Pilates – making the Dublin football and Leinster rugby teams tick

Get some movement back in those muscles.

It’s one thing talking about getting fit and it’s another thing entirely going out and doing it yourself. With that in mind, we’ve put our money where our muscles are (or at least should be) and decided to get out and experience the wide range of fitness classes currently on offer throughout Ireland as part of a new series, JOE’s Fit Bit. Our first stop was at Platinum Pilates in Dublin, where instructor Annie Kirwan put us through our paces on a reformer, a specialised resistance machine designed to improve flexibility, balance and core strength. For somebody who had never been to a pilates class before, I can tell you it was quite an experience. *** The best athletes and the best sports teams will always talk about the extra one or two per cent, the added edge they all look for that might just prove the difference between success and failure. For the All-Ireland winning Dublin footballers and members of the Leinster and Ireland rugby teams, part of that edge is provided by Pilates. Members of both teams are regular visitors to Platinum Pilates, who provide a range of Pilates classes at a number of venues in Dublin. Our Story - Bringing Pilates To Life from Platinum Pilates Ireland on Vimeo. I warned Annie that mine was a body battered by years of playing club Gaelic Football and was quite inflexible as a result, but after an hour stretching in ways I had never stretched before, my only regret was that I hadn’t tried anything like this sooner. For the uninitiated, Reformer Pilates works with the resistance of springs to take the whole body through a full workout. It utilises very natural movements like flexion, extension, lunging and squatting to improve the body's alignment and overall movement. With Reformer Pilates you will tone your whole body, improve your balance and posture, increase your flexibility and strength and counteract the effects of modern, sedentary lifestyles; excessive sitting, general inactivity and stress make our bodies extremely tight, imbalanced and weak. Annie was happy to provide an example of the types of exercises participants would undergo in a typical class. https://youtu.be/O4U73rB20as The principles of Reformer Pilates are the same as Pilates you would perform on a mat, but the resistance of the springs on a Reformer offers an extra challenge to improve your strength and tone and is a great way of increasing flexibility. The emphasis goes beyond core strength with extremely functional movements that work on arms, legs and whole body integration. One class, of course, is nowhere near enough to get the full benefits Reformer Pilates can provide and when I ask Annie how long it takes before you can really feel a difference, she responds with a quote from the founder of the movement, Joseph Pilates himself. “In 10 sessions, you feel better, 20 sessions you look better, 30 sessions you have a completely new body.” Of her own experience of working with clients at Platinum Pilates, Annie says: “We see people who transform their bodies within a couple of weeks, building flexibility, tone and strength that they never imagined.” From a high-performance sporting perspective, Annie says that Pilates has been an integral part of training for the likes of the Dublin footballers and the Leinster rugby team for years. “With them we are always working to improve their performance, to speed up post-match recovery and prevent injuries. "We focus on improving their mobility, building core and glute strength and enhancing their balance and proprioception (balance and spatial orientation).” Given the success of both of those teams in recent years, Pilates certainly hasn't appeared to do them any harm and if you're the rigid type looking to get rid of some of the stiffness in your muscles, it won't do you any harm either. If you run a fitness class in Ireland and would be interested in a feature on the site, feel free to get in touch with Conor Heneghan (conor.heneghan@JOE.ie) or editorial@JOE.ie.